What bird (in right section this time)??

[Judy G. Russell]

So there I am, driving along in the car lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike, just north of Newark Airport. I glance over towards the truck lanes, and there in the median (a grassy area maybe 20 feet wide), sits this bird.

Now I don't ordinarily notice birds. (I'm a cat person, remember.) But it's kind of hard NOT to notice a great big raptor sitting in the median of the New Jersey Turnpike.

So... my guess was that it was somewhere between 18-24" tall, and probably at the high end of that range. A greyish brown rounded head, clearly the raptorial beak. Wings not spread so I couldn't get any sense of the coloration there. A pretty uniform light brown except for a scalloping effect to the feathers. Broad breast with the scalloping particularly noticeable (darker on the scalloped edge). Couldn't see the tail or feet (claws?).

I'd say a female broad-winged hawk except, frankly, I thought it was bigger than the 17" I saw on the web as the maximum size. It was THAT noticeable even with the median guards.

Anybody got any ideas what else it could have been?

[Lindsey]

Anybody got any ideas what else it could have been?
(Cross reference (http://www.tapcis.com/forums/showpost.php?p=31554&postcount=5) to my earlier post)

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

(Cross reference (http://www.tapcis.com/forums/showpost.php?p=31554&postcount=5) to my earlier post)It could have been a rough-legged hawk, but I don't think it was a red tail.

[Lindsey]

It could have been a rough-legged hawk, but I don't think it was a red tail.
That first web site I linked to on the rough-legs did indicate that they often fed on road kill.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

That first web site I linked to on the rough-legs did indicate that they often fed on road kill.Sigh... I sure wish I'd been able to get a picture.

[Lindsey]

Sigh... I sure wish I'd been able to get a picture.
Even then it might not have been definitive, unless you'd have been able to get a picture of the bird's wings and tail.

I've never seen a hawk that close -- I never fully appreciated how large some of them were.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

Even then it might not have been definitive, unless you'd have been able to get a picture of the bird's wings and tail.True but perhaps something in the head or beak might have narrowed it down.

I've never seen a hawk that close -- I never fully appreciated how large some of them were.Fully as large as a mid-sized dog, from the impression I got whizzing past at 65 miles an hour.

[lensue]

>I've never seen a hawk that close -- I never fully appreciated how large some of them were.<

Lindsey, we've had some great bird watching hawk experiences and have gotten real close--their size can be awesome! We had an interesting experience right in back of our own garden--over our fence which we use to keep out the darn deer for the first time ever we saw a pileated woodpecker around our way--a wonderful bird to watch--we had previously only seen them down South. The pileated is by far the largest U. S. woodpecker unless they can show that it's close relative the ivory-billed is not extinct.

[Lindsey]

for the first time ever we saw a pileated woodpecker around our way--a wonderful bird to watch--we had previously only seen them down South.
I stumbled upon what I am fairly sure was a pileated woodpecker in my back yard several years ago. It was moving along on the ground, underneath a weigela. I was amazed at the size of the thing.

I used to hear woodpeckers every spring until a couple of years ago, and now I never hear them at all, maybe because they've lately been clearing so many of the wooded areas here to put up new housing developments. :(

--Lindsey

[lensue]

>I was amazed at the size of the thing<

Lindsey, we saw them quite a few times in the Corkscrew Swamp on the west coast of Florida just northeast of Naples--the sound they make in the forest is monumental and reverberates all over. When we were in Costa Rica we saw a woodpecker that was even more spectacular--same size as the pileated but a head that was nearly all red!

[lensue]

>So there I am<

Judy, now I have a similar kind of story. Tonight we had another opera at the Met--I dropped Sue off early in the garment district since she needed some fabric--after parking the car I had time to walk in Central Park--there in the lake at around 75th st. and pretty close to me were a male and female bufflehead --the closest I've ever been to them--while I didn't have binoculars I did have my opera glasses and that brought these two birds even closer. The white at the back of the male's head and the dot of the females makes me nearly certain these are the birds I saw.

[Judy G. Russell]

there in the lake at around 75th st. and pretty close to me were a male and female bufflehead --the closest I've ever been to them--while I didn't have binoculars I did have my opera glasses and that brought these two birds even closer. The white at the back of the male's head and the dot of the females makes me nearly certain these are the birds I saw.The markings are pretty dramatic so you're probably right in the identification. Way cool!